Cycling is a major global activity. Approximately 80 million bicycles are sold each year (12 million in the USA). Like most mechanical implements, bicycles require maintenance and repair. Common tasks, such as attaching a bicycle to an indoor trainer, regular maintenance, and replacement of a flat tire, require the removal of a wheel having the flat tire. While removal of a front bicycle wheel is relatively simple, removal of a rear wheel from a bicycle having a rear derailleur is widely considered a difficult and dirty task.
The rear derailleur is part of a gear shifting system, wherein the rear derailleur positions a moving chain laterally from gear to gear as desired, while maintaining appropriate tension on the chain to allow it to stay engaged with different sized gears without creating slack in the chain. Since the rear derailleur is spring loaded to maintain chain tension, it must be forced rearward and held away from the gears so that the wheel can be disengaged from the chain and the bicycle frame. Once the wheel is removed, the chain dangles and rests on the bicycle frame marring it with grease/oil and scratching the finish. Re-installing the rear wheel is typically more difficult than removal. Most often, such repairs are performed by a single person with two hands. One hand might hold the bike and the other might hold the wheel to disengage it from the bicycle frame while the person struggles to use one of the two hands to also push back the rear derailleur and disengage the greasy chain from the gears. This is both awkward and difficult.
While work-stands are known to for supporting and holding a bicycle in place for maintenance, thereby freeing up one hand, chain disengagement and wheel removal are still done by hand. There are no known tools for facilitating chain disengagement and removal of a rear wheel.